The Citadel Chronicle
Spell-forged, smoke-grey, and finite

Valyrian Steel Swords

There is no more Valyrian steel being made — the sorcery that folded it died with the Freehold in the Doom. What survives is a fixed and dwindling number of blades, perhaps a few hundred in all the world, each one named, coveted, and jealously kept. Here is every sword the novels trouble to name: its house, its bearer, and where the record leaves it.

What Valyrian steel is

Before the swords, the substance — and why no smith alive can make another inch of it.

Valyrian steel was spell-forged in the Freehold of Valyria, folded and hammered thousands of times over with sorcery the smiths of the dragonlords guarded as closely as their dragons. The finished steel is dark and smoke-grey, its surface rippling like water disturbed — the watered pattern of a thousand foldings caught in the metal. It is lighter than common steel and stronger, holds an edge no whetstone need ever touch, and does not chip, rust, or dull. A great sword of it is worth a lordship. And not one new blade has been forged since the Doom, for the making was never only a matter of hammer and fire.

The dragonsteel question

In the yellowed pages of the Citadel, Samwell Tarly finds that the last heroes of the Long Night were said to wield "dragonsteel" against the Others. He wonders — as many readers do — whether the word is only an old name for Valyrian steel. The novels do not answer him. What they establish plainly is that dragonglass, obsidian, kills the cold things; whether Valyrian steel does the same is a hope built on a half-read legend, not a proven fact. The Chronicle marks the guess as a guess.

The blades still borne

Swords in living hands as the tale opens — the pride of houses great and small.

The swords of the dragonkings

Two blades that came out of Valyria with the Targaryens themselves, and passed out of the realm's keeping.

The reforging of Ice

The greatsword of Winterfell, and the two lesser swords a lion had struck from its ruin. Later chapters — veiled for those still reading.

Ces bifurcations nomment des morts, des dénouements et des chemins que les livres n'ont pas encore parcourus. Ne les dévoilez que si les deux routes vous sont connues — ou si vous ne craignez pas de savoir.

Lost and half-remembered

Blades the histories name and then let slip — swallowed by the Doom, by war, or by the simple failure of the record.

Dawn — the sword that is not Valyrian steel

The one blade in every reckoning of great swords that owes nothing to Valyria's forges.

Aube

Épée à deux mains

Maison Dayne de Sombreétoile

Origin
Nulle lame valyrienne, celle-ci, et plus ancienne que les arts de la Franchise. Aube fut forgée dans le cœur d'une étoile tombée, son métal pâle comme le lait et vivant de lumière là où l'acier valyrien est fumée et ombre.
Bearer
Portée seulement par un Dayne jugé digne d'être nommé l'Épée du Matin — et par nul autre. De mémoire d'homme, ce fut ser Arthur Dayne, le chevalier sans pareil de la Garde Royale d'Aerys, qui tomba face à la compagnie d'Eddard Stark à la Tour de la Joie.
Fate
Rendue à Sombreétoile, où elle est suspendue en attendant le prochain Dayne apte à la soulever. Une épée que la maison garde, non un homme.

L'exception qui confirme la règle : aussi rare que l'acier valyrien, aussi tranchante, aussi fameuse — pourtant faite d'une étoile tombée et non de sorcellerie. La jumelle pâle de chaque lame gris fumée de ce registre.

Sources A Storm of Swords · The World of Ice & Fire

No list of legendary swords is complete without Dawn, and no list of Valyrian steel should include it. Dawn was forged from the heart of a fallen star, milk-pale and shining where every Valyrian blade is dark and smoke. It is older than the Freehold's arts and unique in all the world, and it is borne only by a Dayne of Starfall found worthy of the title Sword of the Morning. Set it beside the smoke-grey ledger above and the contrast is the whole point: two roads to a perfect sword, one paved with sorcery, one with starfall.

The lost art

Why the number of Valyrian blades can only fall.

When the Doom of Valyria shattered the Freehold in a single night of fire and ruin, it took the dragonlords, the sorcerer-smiths, and the secret of their craft together. No forge since has made new Valyrian steel. A few smiths can still rework what already exists — Tobho Mott of King's Landing, Qohor-trained, can melt an old blade down and give the steel new shape and even new colour — and the city of Qohor alone claims to keep the spells of the working. But reworking is not making. Every sword melted for a smaller one, every blade lost beneath the waves or in a field of the dead, is gone from a total that can never be replenished.

In the chronicle

Where these blades cut across the great turnings of the age.

Ces bifurcations nomment des morts, des dénouements et des chemins que les livres n'ont pas encore parcourus. Ne les dévoilez que si les deux routes vous sont connues — ou si vous ne craignez pas de savoir.

How many Valyrian steel swords are there?

The exact count is unknown, but the maesters reckon only a couple hundred Valyrian steel blades survive in all the world, and the number can only fall — none have been forged since the Doom of Valyria destroyed the sorcery of the making. The novels name around a dozen and a half, from the Starks' Ice to the Targaryens' Blackfyre and Dark Sister.

What happened to Ice, the Stark greatsword?

After Eddard Stark's execution, Tywin Lannister had the ancestral Stark greatsword Ice melted down by the smith Tobho Mott and reforged into two new longswords, their steel rippling red and black. One became Oathkeeper, which Jaime Lannister gave to Brienne of Tarth; the other, Widow's Wail, went to King Joffrey and then to his brother Tommen.

Is Dawn a Valyrian steel sword?

No. Dawn, the greatsword of House Dayne borne by the Sword of the Morning, is not Valyrian steel at all. It was forged from the metal of a fallen star and is pale as milkglass, unique in the world and older than Valyria's forges. It is often listed among the great swords precisely because it rivals Valyrian steel while owing nothing to it.

Can Valyrian steel kill White Walkers?

The novels do not confirm it. In the books it is dragonglass — obsidian — that is shown to kill the Others. Samwell Tarly reads that the legendary heroes of the Long Night used "dragonsteel," and speculates the word might mean Valyrian steel, but Martin's text leaves this as an unproven guess rather than an established fact.